DSI Tempest Synthesized Clavinet

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I recently programmed this synthesized clavinet sound using the DSI Tempest. There are no samples involved, only analog oscillators. It turned out to be quite effective thanks to the speedy envelopes in the Tempest synthesis engine. I added a little reverb and delay to give it a little bit of space. I also used a sustain pedal on part of the phrase, something that you cannot do on a Hohner E7.

Tempest Synthesized Clavinet

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About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

4 thoughts on “DSI Tempest Synthesized Clavinet”

  2. Hi Amaysin. Actually you can download the system exclusive data so that you can load it directly into the Tempest. But, if you don’t have a Tempest and are looking for a tutorial on how to create a synthesized clav sound using subtractive synthesis in general, let me know and I can post some steps.

  3. Probably far too late for this, but I do not have a Tempest, and I would very much like to see some of the basic steps to creating a clavinet-like sound with subtractive synthesis.

    (For having a pretty good understanding of how synthesis works, it sure doesn’t come easily for me.)

  4. Hi James, it’s not the easiest thing to do with subtractive synthesis alone. I would have to take a look at the patch to remember what I did, but I’ve made pretty successful clav sounds on a number of analog or analog modeling synths including: Roland Super Jupiter MKS-80, Juno-106, Korg MS2000, DSI Tempest, and Elektron Analog 4. It’s mostly about getting the envelopes right, but filtering and cross mod are also helpful. Karplus Strong synthesis would be a better way to model the string sound of the clavinet than subtractive synths, but it’s still doable if you’re after a more synthesized quality.

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